Explosion-turbine.



G. BEGKMANN. EXPLOSION TURBINE. APPLICATION FILED DBO.19, 1905.

903,657,. Patented Nov. 10,1908.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES: IN I/EN TO]? M C az'zfl eckiuauw v t v I l ATTORNEYS C.BBCKMANN.

EXPLOSION TURBINE.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.19, 1905.

v WITNESSES:

ArromvEl s G. BEGKMANNI EXPLOSION TURBINE. APPLICATION FILED DBO. 19',1905. 903,657. Patented Nov. 10, 1908. I

5 SHEETS8HEET 3. F1 .4-

' INVENTOR C az'LBecfi'mann/ BY v I WITNESSES ATTORNEYS I G. BEGKMANN.

V EXPLOSION TURBINE.

. I APPLIOAT'ION IILE-D DEC. 19, 1905. 903,657.. Patented-Nov. 10, 1908.

. v 5 SHEETS-SHEET 4. F 1 1 5 I //v VENTOI? uri. .13 66/3172 (1 2222 I v7 3g3? G. BECKMANN. EXPLOSION TURBINE.

5 BHEETS.BHEET 5.

- APPLIOATION FILED DEO.19, 1905. I 903,657. Patented Nov. 10, 1908.

PATENT OFFICE.

CARL BECKMANN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

EXPLOSION-TURBINE.

To all whom it may concem:

Be it known that I, CARL BECKMANN, a

citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York,borough of Brook-" lyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York,have invented a new and Improved Explosion-Turbine, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to explosion turbines.

The obj ect of the invention is to produce a prime mover of this classwhich is simple in construction and efficient in operation.

Further objects of the invention are to provide an arrangement whichwill enable the rotor of the machine to act as a carbureter, to provideimproved means for feeding the charges to the explosion chambers, and toprovide improved means for igniting the same.

The invention consists in the construction and combination of parts tobe more fully described hereinafter and particularly set forth in theclaims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part ofthis speciti cation, in which similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section through a turbineconstructed according to my invention; Fig. Q-is a central transversesection, certain parts being broken away andothers shown in elevation;Fig. 3 .isa plan of a portion of the stator, to illustrate the pipingarrangement; Fig. 4 is a plan similar to Fig. 3, showing a portion ofthe stator with the piping removed, so as to illustrate the portarrangement of the stator; Fig. 5 is a perspective of the shell of therotor; Fig. (3 is a side elevation of a bucket section; Fig. 7 is atransverse section-through the bucket section shown in Fig. 6; Fig. 8 isa plan showing a portion of the rotor and a-portion of the statorsuperposed thereupon, so as to illustrate the mode of operation of thebuckets in receiving the force of the explosion and in discharging thegases of combustion through the exhaust ports of the rotor; Fig. 9 is anend elevation of a portion of the turbine, showing the head thereofremoved so as to illustrate the air feed; Fig. 10 isa cross sectionthroughthe rotor and stator, illustrating the circuit arrangement forigniting the charges electrically; Fig. 11 is a cross section through anignition plug which is used Specification of Letters Patent;

Application filed December 19, 1905. Serial 110.292,!519.

Patented Nov. 10, 1908.

in connection with the turbine; Fig. 12 is a; cross section through anignition plug show- M ing the type used with the electrical ignitiondevices; Fig. 13 is a vertical cross section through a modified form ofthe turbine; this view is taken on the line 13-13 of Fig. 14;

Fig. 1 1 is a transverse section through the turbine shown-in Fig. 13;in this view the rotor and stator only are illustrated; and Fig. 15 is across section similar to Fig. 14 but showing another modifiedconstruction the turbine may assume.

- Referring more particularly to the parts, 1 represents the rotor ofthe turbine, the same being rigidly mounted upon a shaft 2, which shaftis rotatably mounted in suitable pedestal bearings 3. The'rotor may berigidly attached to the shaft in any suitable manner, such as by meansof nuts 1, as shown. The rotor comprises a shell 5, of substantiallycylindrical form which is preferably, rab-' 1 beted at its extremities(3 so as to receive rotor heads 7. These heads are of simple disk formand provided with aplurality of air inlet openings 8, as shown in Fig.t), the said inlets bein preferably in the form of slots near the edgesof the heads; these slots are preferably inclined as shown. Theconstruction of thesegheads 7 will be described more fully hereinafter.

The shell 5 of the rotor is illustratedfvery clearly in Fig. 5; it isformed with a plurality of openings 9, facilitating the attach. ment ofdetachable bucket sections 10;-in the openings 9 the bucket sections 10are attached in any suitable manner. These bucketsections are curved soas to conform to the curvature of the shell andare formed withtransverse projections or teeth 11 on their outer faces, said teethpresenting abrupt rear faces 12 and inclined forward faces 13. On theinner side of the bucket sections, radiator ribs 14 are formed, whichpreferably extend longitudinally of the buckets; that is, they extendcirciunferentially of the rotor.

The rotor 1 is mounted within a stator 15, which stator comprises acylinder or barrel 16 supported upon standard 17, as shown, theupper-portion of said standards 17. being formed into annular heads 18which are attached rigidly to the extremities of the barrel, asindicated. The rotor is of considerably less length than the stator, anddisposed centrally within the same so that air spaces '19 are formedbetween the rotor heads and the stator heads. To the outer faces of theheads 7, vanes '20 are attached, which consist r of blades, asillustrated most clearly in Fig.

9. These blades are preferably formed of angle iron or similar material,present-in webs 21 which attach to the heads, an

flanges 22 which project outwardly in an inclined position. As viewed inend elevation, these vanesare preferably curved as indicated in Fig.9,so that they conform substantially to the inclination of the inlet slots8 referred to above. It should be understood that the flanges 2 2 aredisposed forwardly with respect to the direction of rotation. I

' It should be understood that in practice,

there may be as many of the bucket sections 10 as desired; I haveillustrated three. It should be understood that the rotor is mounted soas to rotate freely within the stator, with its outer face lyingsubstantially against the inner face of the stator. It should beunderstood, also, that the rotor constitutes a ca-rbureter, air beingsupplied to the interior thereof by means of the vanes 20. 111 thisconnection, it should be understood that as the rotor revolves, thevanes operating in the air spaces 19, induce an influx of air in aliquid state, I provide one extremity of theshaft 2 with a bore 24, andI inject the fuel into the open extremity of this port by means ofasuitable injector 25. In the port in the end of the shaft, I prefer toplace a bushing 2-6 which assists in preventing a back flow of the fuel.This action is also prevented by l'IlGitllS'O'f a helical fin 27, orscrew which is formed on the inner face of the bore as indicated. Thecharacter of this screw, ofcourse, depends upon the direction ofrotation, and is opposite in character to the same, so that the fin willexert a tendency to force the fuel inwardly. Near the inner extremity ofthe bore 24, I attach tubular arms 28 which project radially as shown.These ari'nsconstitute gasifiers; they connnunicate with the bore 24 soas to receive fuel therefrom. Preferably at their outer extremities,they are provided with perforations 29 and their extremities are closed.The perforations 29 are covered by a sleeve 30 preferably of wire gauzeor similar material. From this arrangement it should be understood thatthe fuel will pass by centrifugal force into the gasifier arms and willpass on to the sleeves 30 where the evaporation of the fuel is greatlyenhanced by the large superficial area presented by the wires composingthe sleeves 30. By reason of the air heads, it will now be understoodthat two mcommgstreams of air are directed upon these gasifiers so thatthe interior of the rotor becomes an efficient carbureter. 7 Upon theouter side of the stator, I provide explosion chambers 31. These arepreferablyithree in number, as illustrated in Fig. v

direction of rotation, illustrated most clearly in Fig. 2, and theseconnections 34 constitute parts of bonnets 36, the bodies of whichconstitute flat dished plates as shown. The connections 34- are attacheddirectly over explosionports 37. These explosion ports 37 are preferablydisposed centrally as indicated in Fig. 4, there being one in connectionwith each pair of inlet ports 35. Neal each of. the explosion ports 37,I provide-an exhaust port 38. These exhaust ports are formed asindicated in Fig. 4, presenting branches 39 near the ends of theexplosion ports. 37, and these branches extend longitudinally withrespect to the direction of rotation of the rotor. At adjacentextremities and on their forward ends with respect to the direction ofrotation, the branches 39 are connected by a curved slot 40, as shown.In this connection, it should be understood that the curvature of theseslots is such that they present their convex sides toward the directionin which the rotor revolves. The bonnets 36 are attached in any suitablemanner to the outer face of the stator, and these bonnets are formedwith ducts or channels 41 which overlie the exhaust ports 38 and affordmeans for conducting the gases of combustion through pipe connections42. These pipe connectionsare preferably inclined as shown, in a reversedirection with respect to the direction of rotation of the rotor, andlead into a main or exhaust ring 43. It should be observed that theexplosion ports 37 are substantially rectangular in form, being disposedlongitudinally with respect to the axis of the rotor. The side edges ofthese ports are preferably beveled, as indicated, so that gasesflowingthrough the same will be directed in the direction in which the face ofthe rotor is moving.

I provide means for admitting the explosive mixture formed within thecarbure'ter, into the explosion chambers; for thisjpurpose, I providethe rotor shell 5 with a plurality of inlet ports 44. These aresubstantially rectangular in form, extending cirpassage for the exlosive mixture.

chambers. It should be understood that when the rotor revolves, theseports 'afiord In this connection, it shou d be understood that theconstant inflow of air into the rotor at the heads operates to bringabout a slight pressure within the rotor so that the explosive mixturequickly passes into the explosion chambers when opening is made thereto.From this arrangement, it Will be understood that, as the rotorrevolves, whenever one of the inlet ports 44 passes under itscorresponding explosion chamber, a charge will pass from the carbureteror .rotor into the explosion chamber. It should be understood, further,that the buckets 10 are in substantial alinement with the explosionports 37 and exhaust ports 38, as indicated most clearly in Fig. 8. Asthe buckets are passing under the explosion ports, the charges in theexplosion ports are ignited and the force of the explosion is receivedupon the buckets, tending to rotate the rotor, as will be readilyunderstood. These buckets are dicated, so that they belong to thepreferably curved on their outer faces as inimpinge and reaction type.

I provide means for igniting the charges in the explosion chambers atall the inlet openings 35; in order to do this, I provide ignition plugs45, constructed as illustrated in Fig. 12, and these are attached insuitable openings 46 in the shell 5 of the rotor. Each of these plugscomprises a tubular body 47, in the bore whereof there is attached anelectric sparker 48, such as a jump spark device,

' the terminals whereof are attached to binding posts 49; these bindingposts are connected in series. in a circuit 50, and the conductors 50 ofthis circuit pass out into the interior of the rotor through openings 51formed in the shaft 2 and lead from a bore 52 formed in the end of theshaft opposite to the point of injection of the fuel. Theconductors 50attach to suitable collars 53 which are separated by insulating disks 54and insulated from the shaft. Upon the faces of these collars 53,suitable brushes 55 a re arranged, to which attach the conductorsleading from a suitable battery 56; From this arrangement, it should beunderstood that when the plugs 45 are passing the ports 35, ignition ofthe charges within the explosion chambers 31, will take place. It shouldbe understood that I do not use these electrical igniting devices onboth ends of the turbine, but only on one end; on the opposite end I useignition plugs 57, such as illustrated in Fig. 11. The bodies of theseplugs are substantially similar to the bodies of the plugs 45, but theyare notfprovided with electrical igniting devices. These plugs 57 areattached in suitable openings 58 in the shell 5 of the rotor, and theseopenings lie opposite the openings .46 aforesaid, so that the ignitiondevices are passing both openings of the explosion-chamberssimultaneously. lVithin the tubular bodies of the plugs l5 and 57 Iprovide porcelain'cups 59 which are attached to the plugs upon suitablewashers 60 of asbestos or similar material. In the operation of theturbine it should be understood that the explosions take place at a highrate, so that these porcelain cups will acquire a high temperature. Theyare intended to act as ignition devices after the turbine has beenoperating a sufiicient time. The sparking devices 48 are intended to beused for starting the machine.

Vhile'I prefer to have the same number 8iv of bucket sections asexplosion chambers, this arrangement is not by any means a neoessity, aswill appear more fully hereinafter. Furthermore, instead of making thebody of the rotor of a simple cylindrical shell as described above, Imay give the rotor 61 the form shown in Fig. 13. In this instance, thebody of the rotor is annular, the head 62 thereof being formedintegrally with an inner sleeve 63. To the head 62 the shell 64 of therotor is attached, as indicated. In other respects, the construction ofthis type is substantially the same as that described, comprising ahollow shaft 65 having radially disposed gasifiers 66 which lead intothe annular chamber 67 formed in the interior of the rotor. As before, Iprovide air heads 68 on the stator which enable the vanes 69 to draw airinto the interior of the rotor. In Fig. 14 I have illustrated a turbineof this second type in which the rotor 70 is provided with two bucketsections 71, while the stator 72 is provided with four explosionchambers located near exhaust outlets 74. In this instance I em- 11 ploythree gasifiers 75. I may, however, adopt the construction shown in Fig.15, which is anothermodification of this second type. In this instance Iprovide an annular I rotor 76 with gasifier arms 77 and two bucketsections 78. Instead of providing four explosion chambers as shown inFig.

14, I may provide six explosion chambers 79. Itshould be understood thatthe operation of the device is substantially the same with the differenttypes illustrated, except that where the explosion chambers areincreased, the number of explosions per revolution are, of course,increased also.

The mode of operation of the turbine will now be described, referringespecially to the illustrations showing the preferred form. The mannerof introducing the fuel into the interior of the rotor and mixing thesame with the air therein, will be clearly understood from the foregoingdescription. As the rotor revolves, when the inlet ports 44 pass underthe ports 35 of the stator, explosive charges pass through into theexplosion chambers 31. The explosion takes place when the buckets aredisposed under the explosion ports 37 from an inspection of Fig. 8, itwill appear that the central portion of the buckets willbe passing underthe explosion ports 37 when the ,side edges of the buckets'are passingunder the branches 39 of the exhaust ports 38. As the explosion occurs,a. violent rotative force is exerted 'upon the buckets of the rotor, andthe gasesof combustion pass longitudinally inboth directions along thebuckets from the central portion thereof. In this way they pass to thebranches 39 of the exhaust ports.

' Exhausting rearwardly in this manner, they exert a reactive effectupon the buckets so that the buckets utilize not only the direct forceof the explosion, but also receive a certain momentum by reason of therearward direction in which the gases expel themselves from the same.Attention is called to the fact that the explosion ports 37 and theexhaust ports 38 are arranged so that the buckets reach both of theseports simultaneously. In this way, exhaust begins at the exhaust ports38 as soon as admission to the buckets begins from the explosionchambers. Between the buckets 10, the rotor shell 5 presents blank faces80 toward the stator, and as these faces lie very close to the face ofthe stator they operate sub stantially to prevent escape of gasesthereheads 18. In this way the'vanes operate as scoops to draw inthegases of combustion through the openings 8, together with the fresh airnecessary to supply the oxygen for the combustion.

It will be understood from the above that the interior of the rotorconstitutes a carbureting chamber; at the same time, the large volume ofair passing into the rotor assists in keeping its temperature from ris-I ing too high. The velocity of the rotor is high so that the explosionsoccur in rapid succession. In this way the edges of the buckets rise toa temperature which is sufiiciently high to ignite the charges in theexplosion chambers as they pass them. Hence as the buckets are passing,the charges are ignited at two points; that is, by the two 0 by thebuckets. The port arrangement is such that the'fresh charge begins itsadmission before the exhaust of the exploded charge is complete; hencethe incoming charge assists in expelling the gases of combusion from theexplosion chambers. In one aspect the overhanging ends of the stator maybe considered as hoods; the air spaces 19 then will constitute gas-trapsfor any gases tending to escape laterally between the stator and-therotor. Any suitable hydrocarbon fuel will be used.

' It is advantageous to have the charging openings of the rotor in thecurved side face ignition devices or porcelain cups 59 and. a s

thereof, as the centrifugal force then assists in moving the charge intothe explosion chamber.

While the vanes 20 operate to turn the escaping gases of combustion,they have a'further useful function by increasing the pres sure withinthe rotor, and this facilitates the feeding movement of. the chargesfrom the rotor into the explosion chambers.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent; I

1. In an explosion turbine, in combination, a rotor, a stator having anexplosion chamber with an inlet opening adjacent to said stator, saidrotor having a carbureting chamber therein and having ah inlet port inalinement with said opening, said stator having an explosion portleading from said chamber, said rotor having buckets to receive theforce of the explosion and ignition devices carriedby said rotor andalining with said inlet'port and said explosion port.

2. In an explosion turbine, in combination, a stator having a pluralityof explosion chambers, a rotor mounted therein and constituting acarbureter, means for admitting air and" a gaseous fuel to said rotor,said rotor having openings in the wall thereof which may communicatewith said explosion chamber'to admit charges thereto, buckets carried bysaid rotor and adapted to receive the force of the explosion from saidchambers, and a self-igniting plug carriedv by said rotor, saidexplosion chambers having 0 enings alining substantially with said p ugand said buckets.

3. In an explosion turbine, in combination, a rotor having a shaft witha longitudinal bore therein, said bore communicating with the interiorof said rotor, means for injectin a liquid fuel into said how,inconveyercrew mounted in said bore and adapted to feed inwardly towardsaidrotor, a stator having explosion chambers, said rotor havingopenings which may communicate with said explosion chambers to admit gaswhich may communicate with said'explosion chambers to receive the gasestherefrom.

thereto, and buckets carried by said rotor,

side of said walls at 4. In an explosion turbine, in combination, astator having a' round body,va rotor carbureter mounted therein andsubstantially filling the bore of said body, bucket sections carried bysaid rotor, explosion chambers on said stator adapted to exert the forceof the explosion on said bucket sections, hoods projecting outwardly atthe ends of said stator adapted to trap the gases passing therefrom, andvanes for forcing said gases back into said rotor.

5. In a turbine, in combination, a stator, a rotor mounted thereinandihaving side walls, said stator having explosion chambers, gas trapsformed at the ends of said stator beyond said side walls, and rotatingvanes outthe ends of said stator, for forcing the gases from said trapsback into said roto'r.

6. In a turbine, incombination, a rotor, a stator surrounding the sameand projecting thereheyond at the sides to form hoods, said rotor havingheads with inlet openings therein and vanes carried by said heads andmoving in said hoods to throw the gases inwar y.-

. a 7. In a turbine, in combination, a rotor having transverse bucketgrooves inclining rearwardly toward the side edges thereof, a statorhaving ports alining with tially the middle portions of said buckets,and having exhaust ports with branches leadin rearwardly and aliningwith the side e ges of said buckets.

8 A stator, a hollow rotor mounted therein, said stator having explosionchambers receiving the explosive mixture from said rotor, said rotorhaving heads with inlet openings therein, and vaneson said heads adapteo draw the air in through said in-' let openings.

I 9. A rotor having a smooth curved side face with openings.therethrough, leading from the interior of said rotor, a stator havmg acurved side face lying close to said face of said rotor and havingopenings alining with said openings in the face of said rotor, saidstator having explosion chambers, receiving-their charges through saidopenin 10. i rotor having heads and a cylinto said shell and havingsubstandrical face therebetween and having bucket sections and chargingopenings in said face, a stator having explosion chambers and acylindrical wall lying close to said face of said rotor, and havingcharging openings in said wall, said stator having explosion-ports inthe said wall thereof, leading directly from said explosion chambers,said explosion-ports alining centrally with said buckets in the face ofsaid rotor.

11. A rotor having a cylindrical shell, a stator having a cylindricalwall lying close explosion-chambers, bucket-sections carried in the wallof said shell and alining centrallywith said explo sion chambers, saidbucket-sections having laterally extending bucket grooves, said statorhaving exhaust-channels in said wall thereof, said channels alining withthe ends of said bucket-grooves.

12. A rotor having a cylindrical shell with bucket-sections, mounted inthe wall thereof, a stator having a cylindrical wall lying close aroundsaid. shell and having inlet-openings, taking charges from the interiorof said rotor, said stator havingexinlet openings taking charges fromthe interior of said rotor, said stator having explosion openings inalinement with said bucket sections, pipes connectingsaid inlet portswith said explosion openings and constituting explosion chambers, andexhaust channels in said stator carrying ofi' the exhaust gases fromsaid bucket sections.

In testimony whereof I have s gned my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

CARL BECKMANN.

, Witnesses:

JNO. M. Rrrrnn, F. D. AMMEN.

